There are better ways to make a diplomatic point

As if Israel had no other problems facing it, it now has to extricate itself from the public relations blunder, Danny Ayalon, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, got entangled in. Instead of exposing the anti-Semitic policies of the Turkish government and its Prime Minister Yayyip Erdogan, Danny Ayalon managed to throw the focus of the world media on the absurd Idi Amin like stunt he staged for the Turkish Ambassador to Israel.

Quite a bizarre diplomatic demarche it was. To protest the anti-Israel TV show he summoned the Turkish ambassador to Israel Ahmet Oguz Celikkol, and seated him in a lower chair to humiliate him. The whole thing backfired. Let's remember where all this started. In January 2009 at the Davos conference Erdogan accused Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza. In his response President Peres quoted Article 7 and Article 13 of the Hamas Charter:

The Prophet, Allah's prayer and peace be upon him, says: "The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him,' except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews." (Recorded in the Hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim).

After which Erdogan stormed out of the meeting.

Ayalon has since apologized. Ayalon had the right idea. His method was wrong.

While I am not suggesting that Israel should declare war on Turkey, here is how Winston Churchill handled UK's declaration of war on Japan:

Sir,

On the evening of December 7th His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom learned that Japanese forces without previous warning either in the form of a declaration of war or of an ultimatum with a conditional declaration of war had attempted a landing on the coast of Malaya and bombed Singapore and Hong Kong.

In view of these wanton acts of unprovoked aggression committed in flagrant violation of International Law and particularly of Article I of the Third Hague Convention relative to the opening of hostilities, to which both Japan and the United Kingdom are parties, His Majesty's Ambassador at Tokyo has been instructed to inform the Imperial Japanese Government in the name of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom that a state of war exists between our two countries.

I have the honour to be, with high consideration,

Sir,

Your obedient servant,

Winston S. Churchill

Of the letter, Churchill later wrote: "Some people did not like this ceremonial style. But after all, when you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite"

As if Israel had no other problems facing it, it now has to extricate itself from the public relations blunder, Danny Ayalon, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, got entangled in. Instead of exposing the anti-Semitic policies of the Turkish government and its Prime Minister Yayyip Erdogan, Danny Ayalon managed to throw the focus of the world media on the absurd Idi Amin like stunt he staged for the Turkish Ambassador to Israel.

Quite a bizarre diplomatic demarche it was. To protest the anti-Israel TV show he summoned the Turkish ambassador to Israel Ahmet Oguz Celikkol, and seated him in a lower chair to humiliate him. The whole thing backfired.

Let's remember where all this started. In January 2009 at the Davos conference Erdogan accused Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza. In his response President Peres quoted Article 7 and Article 13 of the Hamas Charter:

The Prophet, Allah's prayer and peace be upon him, says: "The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him,' except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews." (Recorded in the Hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim).

After which Erdogan stormed out of the meeting.

Ayalon has since apologized. Ayalon had the right idea. His method was wrong.

While I am not suggesting that Israel should declare war on Turkey, here is how Winston Churchill handled UK's declaration of war on Japan:

Sir,

On the evening of December 7th His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom learned that Japanese forces without previous warning either in the form of a declaration of war or of an ultimatum with a conditional declaration of war had attempted a landing on the coast of Malaya and bombed Singapore and Hong Kong.

In view of these wanton acts of unprovoked aggression committed in flagrant violation of International Law and particularly of Article I of the Third Hague Convention relative to the opening of hostilities, to which both Japan and the United Kingdom are parties, His Majesty's Ambassador at Tokyo has been instructed to inform the Imperial Japanese Government in the name of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom that a state of war exists between our two countries.

I have the honour to be, with high consideration,

Sir,

Your obedient servant,

Winston S. Churchill

Of the letter, Churchill later wrote: "Some people did not like this ceremonial style. But after all, when you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite"